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Monday, August 22, 2016

#1708: Mark Harris

We’re
getting a bit tired by local, angry, delusional, petty and bigoted anti-gay
loons, but yes: Here is another one. Rev. Mark Harris, of Charlotte’s First
Baptist Church, helped organize (with Ron Baity) and finance the campaign to
pass North Carolina’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions in 2012
(he was firmly opposed to the idea that gay people
are “fine and dandy” or should be regarded as normal). Harris emphasized that the Amendment One
campaign wasn’t just about marriage but about attacking the gay community,
which he (his wife Beth, in fact) put in the same category as Nazis and
eugenicists; people are moreover gay as a result of sexual abuse, and
supporters of the “gay agenda” (like Oprah Winfrey and Katy Perry) are warping
the minds of children. Harris is the kind of guy who laments the absence of true Christians
(i.e. opponents of gay marriage) in the marriage equality debates, and complains
that no one is speaking up, so he has called for his congregation to “come out
of the closet” as Christians, even if they may face some persecution.